Photo 1: Already well on its way to a Yellow Card. You'll see Barcelona midfielder Sergio Busquets has already played the ball away (left corner of the photo), as Scholes is just beginning his slide. He'd have a hard time arguing that he was going for the ball, yes? Also, note that his trailing leg (left leg here) looks like it is going to be in the traditional place--tucked behind him like a baserunner sliding into second.
Photo 2: Followthrough. The left leg has not tucked in like it is supposed to. Scholes has already stopped the foward movement of Busquets left leg and is now moving into what is called a "scissors" tackle. I knew a guy in high school who called it a "Woodbridge Tackle", but I think that's because he had a beef with a team from Woodbridge, VA.
Photo 3: Finish him! The look of agony on Busquets' face is not necessarily an overly dramatic European getting barely knocked. He is pretty lucky that his cleat is off the ground--if he were dug in, ligament damage would be probable. A broken bone (shin?) wouldn't be out of the question. This isn't even looking much like a botched slide anymore--Scholes is torquing his body around, and looking to get as good of a hit as he can get. A very cheap shot indeed, and not very far away from a possible Red Card.
2 comments:
No Scholesy! He's a ginger!
On the plus side, I imagine Busquets yelling, "N-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O!" just like Kurt Russell in Deadwood.
I grew up in VA playing soccer and my high school soccer team played a "friendly" against Woodbridge as a warmup game going into our season. We ended up almost getting into a full team vs team brawl with them and the game was called before full time. They were a bunch of dirty bastards. I can understand why the guy you knew in hs called it a Woodbridge tackle.
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